NECC
MINUTES
/AUgust 25, 2015
/Fish LAke
/ LAGRANGE INMEETING CALLED BY /
Rich Burden
TYPE OF MEETING / Council Meeting
FACILITATOR / Rich Burden
NOTE TAKER / Pam Deetz
TIMEKEEPER / Called to order at 12:30 pm.
ATTENDEES / Tammy McMullen—AWS, Nancy Moore—PNE, Bridget Sovinski-SPOE, Lydia Otatio—CTI, Donna Driscoll—Hand in Hand, Stephanie Furnas—Hand in Hand, Rich Burden—INSOURCE, Pam Deetz—LPCC, Sue Victor—JESSE/LEA, Clare Mann—1st Kids, Amy Ellis—Homefront, Jaimie Burks—SPOE, Brigette Fairchild-Leazenby—SPOE; Shirley Huntsman—State Director, Betsy Burks—LPCC, Service Coordinators Maiko Heflick and Christina Keene
Agenda topics
INTRODUCTIONS/Minutes/Announcements
/rich burden
DISCUSSION / Shirley Huntsman was introduced as the new state director of First Steps, and Sue Victor from the JESSE co-op was introduced as a new council member. Donna moved to accept the minutes of the previous meeting. Amy seconded and the minutes were approved.AGENDA TOPICS
budget/RFF
/Clare mann
DISCUSSION /· The budget was wrapped up June 30th. There was an intentional $11,000 year-end deficit.
spoe updates
/bridget sovinski
DISCUSSION / · Two new service coordinators were introduced.· SC caseloads are high. The goal is to be under 70 by October 1. The assessment team is backlogged as well, and we will be adding a new SLP to the team 1 day a week for St. Joe, Marshall and Fulton counties.
Lpcc updates
/Betsy Burks/Bridget Sovinski
DISCUSSION / · Our child count continues to increase. We are on track to reach 3% (1020). A new state target of 3.8% has been set.· Two interns from IUSB are working at SPOE, and will be helping with LPCC and screenings. Screenings at Head Start are scheduled for Sept. 2 & 4. They have also been hired to do intake (with ongoing SCs writing the IFSPs).
· Betsy reported on a variety of other outreach activities.
· Certificates were presented to council members in appreciation of their service.
· Several additional new members will be joining the council: Caroline Brill (Penn-Harrison LEA), Sara Knight (parent), Melinda Schwartz (Healthy Families Kosciusko County), and Renee Case (foster parent).
QUALITY ASSURANCE
/PAM DEETZ
DISCUSSION / · We are no longer placing SC only plans on the monthly C & C log.· Pam reported on random audit calls to Steuben and Whitley Counties.
TRANSITION /
bridget sovinski
· The school corporations are working with us to handle late referrals (over 29 months). We are attempting to identify a small district that could do evals to determine eligibility for both FS and the LEAs. This has been discussed with both transition teams.DISCUSSION
AGENCY MEETING
/TAMMY McMULLEN
DISCUSSION / · Discussion at the agency meeting centered on the barriers to provider recruitment and retention, including credentialing and compensation. Some suggestions were made such as allowing field licensure to act as the required credentialing and offering a “no show” rate.DATA COMMITTEE / NANCY MOORE
DISCUSSION / · The profile report is available on the web. State average cost of an IFSP per child is $1639. Cluster B counties range from an average of $1200 in Noble County to $1700 in DeKalb. The cluster average is $1450.
· Currently 45% of the cluster’s children are moving to preschool special education. Our cluster has a higher than state average of children receiving DT and OT, and a lower than state average of children receiving PT and Speech.
· Two initial IFSPs went over 45 days for system errors.
ADDITIONAL ISSUES / · Gail Carleton PT of the Assessment team will be retiring in October.
· Bridget Sovinski announced her upcoming retirement (November 19th).
· The Lutheran NICU in Fort Wayne is establishing a follow up clinic. Babies discharged will be evaluated at this clinic, and this will serve as an eval for FS. This is to be tried for 6 months to see how it works.